


New Year's Eve

by Azellma



Series: Chains Anthology [5]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, New Year's Eve, with these two it's always fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 04:58:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17237837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azellma/pseuds/Azellma
Summary: For once Sloan doesn't really care about the stars.





	New Year's Eve

He’d been blunt and dismissive, when she finally worked up the nerve to ask.  
  
“I mean, I admitted to some impure thoughts,” he’d said. “And, sure, maybe there’s more’n that. But don’t worry. I don’t mean no harm by it, and I don’t want that to affect what we got.”  
  
He’d smiled at her, and changed the subject, and she’d quietly eaten her heart out over it. She’d spent the last week trying to work out how to bring it up again. How to explain how she felt, without chasing him away.  
  
Now, sitting on the roof full of mentats and rum, she wondered why it had seemed so complicated. It all seemed so simple now, under the stars, with the city spread out around them. New Year’s Eve. The distant sounds of celebration — and _that_ had been a pleasant surprise, to find out New Years Eve was still a thing people cared about. She’d expected Hancock to be all wrapped up in the party, but it had been his idea to get away from the crowds. She had him all to herself, up here. Just the two of them, the way it was meant to be. The stars above, the ruins of Boston spread out around them… And really, it was so simple. This was _Hancock._ She could always talk to Hancock. What kind of moron was she, that it took mentats to get her to realise that all she had to do was be honest?  
  
She took a breath.  
  
“Hey, Hancock?”  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“Last week, when I asked you if we were more than friends…”  
  
“You don’t got to —”  
  
“— It’s because I really like you. I _want_ to be more than friends. But if you don’t, I understand.”  
  
He was silent, his face turned towards the stars, his cigarette dangling from one hand.  
  
“Listen,” he said at last, “it ain’t that I’m not interested. But come on. You don’t want to wake up to this mug every morning.” He looked down to the street under his boots, knocking the ash from his cigarette. “Never wish that on anyone I cared for.”  
  
Sloan took a breath against the vice tightening in her chest.  
  
“C’mon, Hancock. You really think I’m like that? I don’t care what other people think. Fuck them. Fuck anyone who makes you feel ashamed.”  
  
“Wasn’t thinking about the folks doing the shaming.”  
  
“Then what? If they kick me out of Diamond City for — for being with you, then that’s not somewhere I want to be.”  
  
He huffed a sigh through the hole where his nose had been, and dropped his head, turning his cigarette around in his fingers.  
  
“I don’t want you to have to…” he grimaced, “…to _pretend_. To pretend _this_ is something that you wanna see.”  
  
“Hancock…” Her throat was dry, and she swallowed. “I like you the way you are. I _like_ your face. There’s nothing I’d rather wake up to.” He shook his head, and she put a hand to his shoulder and gave him a gentle shove. “You calling me a liar?”  
  
She saw a smile curve the corner of his lips, and he chuckled.  
  
“You sure you don’t want to keep this friendly until they find a cure for ugly?”  
  
She didn’t know what to say to that, whether to scold him or to hit him. Instead she leant forward, and waited until he turned his head to look at her before she kissed him.  
  
His lips — or what remained of them — were scarred and rough, but they were _warm_. After a moment of surprise he responded, with more confidence than she’d expected, even from him. And _fuck,_ he was a good kisser. Firm and passionate, with a touch of something she would have to call _authority_. God, he was going to be a handful.  
  
“All right, all right,” he said as they paused for breath. “I get the picture. Although I wouldn’t mind a little more convincin’.” He sat back and took a drag from his cigarette, before stabbing it out on the tiles and flicking the butt over the edge of the roof. “You sure about this?” he asked. His dark eyes were wide, glittering in the light from the street below.  
  
“I’m sure.” She kicked her feet, swinging them in the air over the side of the roof. “I mean, _god,_ like I haven’t had the hots for you since the day I got here.” She flashed him a smile. “I swear you stabbed that guy just to turn me on.”  
  
“Well… not saying I _didn’t_ hope it might impress ya… Pretty thing like you.”  
  
She shifted a little closer, her shoulder brushing up against his.  
  
“What about you? Are you sure…? I mean, it’s not like I’m the poster girl for mental stability.”  
  
“I ain’t got an escape route planned, if that’s what you’re askin’. This is exactly where I want to be.” He reached over to slide an arm around her waist, and pulled her up against him.  
  
She’d always felt a bit like a schoolgirl with a crush around Hancock, fourteen years old all over again, falling for the bad boy who smoked cigarettes and played with knives behind the bike sheds. Something about him made her fingers tingle and her heart pound in her chest. And being this close… Maybe it was the chems, or the booze, but it felt so damn _intimate,_ pressed up against his side. She could feel his ribs expanding as he breathed, and closed her eyes for a moment, waiting for her mind to catch up to reality. She’d _kissed him._ And he’d kissed her back. And now… What now? Were they a couple? He wasn’t really the sort for _defining_ things, for setting boundaries or making rules. He followed his heart. And he never seemed the type to settle down. He had that sense of romantic freedom about him, like a heroic swashbuckler in an old pirate film, following the stars to far-off lands and sunken treasure. God, she loved that. And she didn’t want him to start planning those escape routes six months down the line.  
  
She cleared her throat.  
  
“You want to, um… keep things open?” She tilted her head up to look at his face.  
  
“You… what, you mean, like…”  
  
“Like…” She shifted. “Look… ” She turned her gaze back down to her toes, and kicked her feet. “I’m _serious_ about you, John. But I don’t think anyone who really loved you would ask you to be a one-woman man.”  
  
She felt his hand tighten on her waist, and realised she’d used the L word. Oh, god. He was going to freak.  
  
“You’d be up for that?” he said instead, and she released the breath she’d been holding.  
  
Thank god. Maybe he hadn’t noticed.  
  
She looked up at him with a nervous smile. “I ask only two things.”  
  
There was something like a wariness in his eyes as he nodded, and on a whim she leant forward to press a kiss against his cheek.  
  
“First,” she said, “you extend me the same courtesy.”  
  
“Done,” he said without thinking.  
  
“And two… you talk to me.”  
  
“We’re _already_ talkin’.”  
  
“No, I — I mean…” She huffed a laugh, and let her eyes wander over the stars as she sought for words. “Did I ever tell you Nate had a boyfriend?”  
  
“…Really? Damn, all this time I’ve been thinkin’ of him as vanilla. Been doing the guy a disservice.”  
  
“Yes, well… Sam, his name was. They loved each other. Served in the same unit.”  
  
“And you were okay with that?”  
  
She shrugged. “Sure. I liked that he had someone who was there for him. But Nate used to tell me things. Y’know… He told me about the guy who’d transferred to his unit with the blond hair and the jawline… he told me about the first time they kissed, and how he wanted to take it further…”  
  
“So you wanna know what I get up to.”  
  
“Yes.” She smiled at him, hoping that look in his eye meant something good. “I just want us to communicate. I love how easy it is to talk with you; I don’t want that to change. But it doesn’t have to be anything detailed. If someone catches your eye, Hancock, I wanna know. Because I care about you, and if something makes you happy, I want you to be able to share that with me. I don’t want us to have secrets. And I don’t want to tie you down. I know you wouldn’t be happy, if I did.”  
  
He sat back, leaning on one hand, and studied her from underneath his hat.  
  
“You’re something else, you know that?” he said at last.  
  
“I don’t want to make you into something you’re not. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe you’re Mister Monogamy underneath it all —”  
  
He let out a bark of laughter. “Actually I was kinda wondering how I was going to keep it in my pants. Not that you ain’t enough to keep a guy happy…”  
  
“Hey, I’m away for weeks at a time. Can’t expect a night with me to keep you sated for a month. I’m good, but I’m not _that_ good.”  
  
“Oh, I intend to find out _exactly_ how good you are.” His eyes lingered on her, and for a moment she thought he was going to jump her there and then. Instead he smirked. “You going to tell me about what you get up to?”  
  
“Unless you’d rather not hear about it.”  
  
“You crazy? Sweetheart, I’m gonna want _details_.” He grinned at her. “What about invitin’ someone else to, y’know, spice things up now an’ then? With the both of us? You be into that?”  
  
“Depends on the someone, but I’d be open to it.”  
  
“You’re amazing.” He kissed the side of her neck, and chuckled, his breath hot against her skin. “You know, moments like this, I know that karma stuff is all bull. Because no one like me should be this lucky.”  
  
She wanted to say luck had nothing to do with it, but when she opened her mouth to respond he cut her off with a kiss, his hand rising to the side of her neck, his thumb tracing along her jaw. It was enough to turn her mind to mush, to stop the breath in her lungs. By the time he pulled back, pressing his forehead against hers, she had forgotten what she was going to say.  
  
“Come on, love,” he said. “Let’s go inside. Gettin’ way too cold out here.”  
  
She hadn’t expected the _love_. Not this soon; not from him. It must be his way of saying he was all-in, of planting his flag, of jumping in with both feet. When Hancock decided to do something, he did it with all his heart and soul. It was what she loved most about him.  
  
He dropped down through the hole in the roof into the attic, and held up his arms to catch her. They’d done this maybe a half-dozen times before, but it was different, now. The pause before he set her back on the ground, the way his hands lingered on her waist, hers on his shoulders, and then he was kissing her, walking her backwards to push her up against the wall.  
  
God, how was he so _warm?_  
  
It was hard to think with his hands on her. He was _overwhelming_ in every sense, and a small worry started to gnaw at the base of her skull that she was in way over her head here. It was a damn good thing she didn’t mind relinquishing control.  
  
“’m I lettin’ myself get carried away?” he murmured against the side of her neck.  
  
“No,” she said, a little breathless. “You’re just… really good at this.”  
  
His low chuckle sent a thrill up her spine.  
  
“You still thinkin’ of leavin’ tomorrow?” He bent his head to nip his teeth along the curve of her throat.  
  
“I was, but you’re making it pretty hard right now.”  
  
“Probably for the best. Give us both time to process… this.”  
  
“Since when are _you_ the sensible one?” she grumbled.  
  
“Since I got something worth bein’ sensible about. I don’t want to fuck this up, Sloan.”  
  
She laid her head on his shoulder with a sigh, and felt his arms circle around her back. For a moment, they just held one another.  
  
“You’re right. I just… I like this.”  
  
“Hey, I’ll still be here when you get back. Like always.”  
  
She raised her head to press a soft kiss against his lips.  
  
“You promise?”  
  
That first night was surprisingly chaste. She didn’t want him to think she was just in it for the sex, and perhaps he didn’t want to scare her off. When they came down from the attic it was his office he pulled her into, not his bedroom, and they spent the night curled up together on the couch.  
  
They parted the next day with a thousand unspoken promises, and a kiss that was on her mind until the lights of Goodneighbor came back into view.  
  
  
  


 

 


End file.
